The comedian was guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault with 10 years attached to each sentence.
Once known for his comedy and popular T.V series, Bill Cosby is now more popular for his controversies. According to Biography, Bill gained stardom as a comedian with his work in T.V shows like I Spy, Fat Albert, and The Cosby Show.
But soon, everything went crashing when he made headlines for alleged misconduct in 2014. He fell from being "America's Dad" to a sex offender. He was accused of sexually assaulting, drugging, and coercing 60 women since 1965, according to The Wrap.
However, The New York Times reported in 2015 that the comedian confessed that he paid one of his mistresses so that his infidelity can be kept hidden from his wife, Camille Cosby. In the excerpts of a deposition published from a 2005 court case, it was revealed that a woman named Andrea Constand had sued Bill for drugging her and then sexually assaulting her which The Cosby Show star claimed was consensual.
He asked his talent agency to pay Constand $5,000 to buy her silence. According to the deposition, the comedian wanted to write a personal check for Constand's schooling instead of using his foundation so that he could tell his wife that "there is a person I would like to help."
"My wife would not know it was because Andrea and I had had sex and that Andrea was now very, very upset and that she decided that she would like to go to school or whatever it is," he said, as per the transcript. He also revealed that he reimbursed $5,000 that his agency sent to another one of his victims, Therese Serignese, to hide his payment from Camille.
Constand was the first one to speak of her assault by the hands of the famous star. Back in 2005, Constand had accused the comedian of “inappropriate touching” when she went to him for career advice. Bill's lawyer at that time dubbed her allegations “utterly preposterous” and “plainly bizarre,” reported Vulture. That's when another woman, Tamara Green, a California lawyer came forward with her own experience with the comedian.
But in 2006, the matter with Constand was settled with an astounding amount of $3.5 million, reported The Daily Mail in 2018, after the funnyman was found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault when a retrial was conducted stemming from Constand’s accusations. 10 years of life behind bars was attached to each sentence. Even though Constand wasn't taken seriously when she had narrated her horrific experience, by 2018, more women had come forward and so a retrial was conducted.
However, through all of this, his wife was right next to him, supporting him throughout the case. Camille, who has been married to Bill since 1964 and been his manager for a long time, defended him till the day he was convicted as she accompanied him to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with all smiles, reported Intouch Weekly.
When in 2014, Bill got mounted by accusations, Camille firmly maintained that her husband had been victimized by "untrue" allegations. In a statement, she penned, “The man I met, and fell in love with, and whom I continue to love, is the man you all knew through his work." She continued, “He is a kind man, a generous man, a funny man, and a wonderful husband, father, and friend. He is the man you thought you knew.”
“A different man has been portrayed in the media … It is the portrait of a man I do not know. It is also a portrait painted by organizations painted by individuals and organizations whom many in the media has given a pass. There appears to be no vetting of my husband’s accusers before stories are published or aired … None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking the victim. But the question should be asked: Who is the victim?" she added.
In June 2020, Camille shared an update on Bill's condition who's behind the bars as she revealed that even though she hasn't visited him, they're still in contact every day. She said, “I do not want to see my husband in that kind of an environment, and he doesn’t want me to see him in that kind of environment,” as reported by abc13.
She added that she'll wait till he's free and believes that the day is not too far. As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear part of Bill's appeal, Camille said, “Finally, there is a court — the state’s highest court — that has said, ‘Wait a minute. There are some problems here.'"
She added, “The #MeToo movement and movements like them have intentional ignorance pertaining to the history of particular white women who have — from the very beginning — accused black males of sexual assault without any proof whatsoever, no proof, anywhere on the face of the earth.”
Bill and Camille are still married and parents to five children, Erika, 55; Erinn, 54; Evin, 44. Their son Ennis was murdered at the age of 27 in 1997 and their daughter Ensa passed away at the age of 44 in 2018 due to renal disease.
References:
https://www.biography.com/performer/bill-cosby
https://www.thewrap.com/60-bill-cosby-accusers-complete-list-breakdown-guilty/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/18/arts/bill-cosby-deposition-excerpts.html?
https://www.vulture.com/2014/09/timeline-of-the-abuse-charges-against-cosby.html
https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/is-bill-cosby-still-married-158966/
https://abc13.com/bill-cosby-appeal-camille-sex-assault/6264496/
